Or at Hill AF Base, at any rate.

America Airlifts Its Nuclear Future as Pentagon Delivers Microreactor in Historic C-17 Mission
A C-17 Globemaster III lifted off from March Air Reserve Base in California on Sunday carrying cargo that would have seemed like science fiction a generation ago: a next-generation nuclear reactor, bound for testing in Utah. The reactor was flown to Hill Air Force Base in Utah and is expected to be transported to the Utah San Rafael Energy Lab in Orangeville for testing and evaluation, marking a turning point in America’s race to reclaim energy dominance.

The airlift wasn’t just a logistics operation. It was a declaration that the United States intends to win the advanced nuclear race while China builds Generation IV reactors and the rest of the developed world stumbles through energy crises of their own making. President Donald Trump’s executive order to modernize America’s nuclear energy infrastructure and strengthen U.S. national security set this moment in motion, and the Department of War wasted no time executing the mission.

The reactor being transported is part of a collaboration between the Pentagon and Valar Atomics, a California-based startup founded by 25-year-old Isaiah Taylor. The company’s Ward 250 reactor represents a fundamentally different approach to nuclear power: small, transportable, factory-built units that can be deployed wherever they’re needed rather than massive installations that take decades to construct. For military installations that currently depend on vulnerable civilian power grids or diesel generators, the implications are profound.

For the military, reliance on diesel generators when deployed and local electric grids here at home is widely viewed as a significant national security threat. Every forward operating base running on fuel convoys is a target. Every domestic installation tied to the civilian grid is one cyberattack away from going dark. The microreactor solution eliminates both vulnerabilities. These units can be transported by C-17, set up at remote locations, and provide reliable power independent of supply lines or grid infrastructure.

Lots of very intriguing, very enheartening stuff in this one, folks. Bottom line:

The image of a nuclear reactor loaded into a C-17 represents more than technological capability. It represents a shift in how America approaches both energy and national security. For too long, those domains were treated as separate concerns, managed by bureaucracies more interested in process than results. The Trump administration’s executive orders and the military’s execution of programs like Janus reflect a different calculation: that energy security and military readiness are inseparable, and that restoring American dominance in both requires breaking old patterns.

Whether Valar Atomics ultimately succeeds or another company takes the lead matters less than the broader trajectory. The reactor sitting in Utah for testing is proof that America can still move quickly when leadership decides that winning matters more than managing decline. The question now is whether that momentum continues or whether it gets buried under the same regulatory and political obstacles that have paralyzed American energy development for half a century.

Time will tell, as ever. Either way, it’s good to know that SecWar Hegseth is working on it for us in accordance with the tasking set forth by President Trump, with eyes set firmly on the road ahead and not the dim and distant past.